By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
The Army is surging into full-rate production to build and deliver thousands of new Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicles intended to replace the service’s obsolete M113s by transporting infantry, firing mortars, conduct forward reconnaissance missions and perform time-sensitive, life-saving medical evaluation.
“It’s really five different variants, so it’s really five different vehicles….but that full rate production decision is a major step for the Army to finally start replacing M113s as rapidly as possible,” Mr. Douglas Bush, Assistant Secretary of the Army, Acquisition, Logistics & Technology, told reporters according to a transcript provided by the Army.
The first AMPVs have already been delivered, yet the Army intends to engineer each variant for a specific set of specialized missions, one reason perhaps why Bush cited the variants as “different” vehicles. The General Purpose AMPV will deliver forces under armor in large numbers when massed in formations, and they will likely be protected to a certain extent by heavy mechanized armored columns equipped with firepower sufficient to repel possible enemy attacks. The service is also building a Mortar Carrier for on-the-move mortar fire and several medical variants to support combat casualties called the Medical Evacuation and Medical Treatment variants. The Medical Treatment variant travels with combat survival doctors and surgeons to ensure high-speed, rapid life preserving medical care close to the point of injury.
Given the age of the Army’s 13,000 M113 infantry carrier vehicles, it is likely the Army will eventually build much greater numbers of AMPVs than an intial 3,000 in coming years, particularly given the extent to which the vehicle is being networked for on-the-move mission command vehicles.
“The 113 has been a good vehicle, but it’s out of date. We would probably not deploy it. It wasn’t used in our previous two conflicts. So, soldiers need something better and this vehicle is much better. And we are finally in full-rate production,” Bush said.
For the purpose of streamlining logistics across its fleet of AMPVs, and ensuring ongoing technological upgradeability, the Army is building the new vehicles with a common set of technical standards. This effort, often referred to as open architecture, uses IP Protocol and other elements of the vehicle’s technical infrastructure to ensure the platform can accommodate upgrades quickly as they emerge. This means, perhaps, smaller form-factor, higher-throughput sensors, more advanced AI-enabled computing or next-generation weapons needing to integrate with the platform. Common parts mean breakdowns, maintenance and sustainment can be managed across the entire fleet of AMPV variants to preserve and streamline operational readiness. An interesting Army essay on the AMPV says the vehicle also has common parts with the M2 Bradleys and M109A7 Paladins, a development which can help upgrade and sustain an entire armored formation.
Not surprisingly, the first AMPV variant ready was the highly networked “Mission Command” variant designed to enable mobile, multi-domain mission command on the move. This would make sense given the service’s known emphasis upon networking. An Army write up describes the “Mission Command” variant as a vehicle which operates a mobile “command post,” with “increased size, weight, power and cooling, and provides a significant increase in command, control, computers, communications, cyber, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability.”
The Army has been working on accomplishing Mission Command on the Move for many years, and recent breakthroughs with AI-enabled, multi-domain information sharing and analysis are likely to expedite high-speed networking across all variants and the wider force. The General Purpose variant is intended to support a dismounted infantry squad during “tactical assaults,” as it could quickly reinforce advancing forces and help units amidst combat quickly “maneuver” from one point to another.
Kris Osborn is President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
